Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: Sick with Anger

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  • linger, in reply to Bart Janssen,

    the receiver gets to choose what is offensive or not

    … to the receiver. Certainly, the receiver’s feelings are real, and should be acknowledged, but such feelings aren’t normally just based on the wording itself, but also on the perceived speaker’s intent. Of course, it is often less clear what the actual intent is, and that’s where I think there’s scope for Sasha’s point above about the dance of meaning.
    - Some usage, looked at carefully in context, is not intended to offend, but may still provoke a strong emotional response.
    - Conversely, some usage is surely intended to offend, even if not using “offensive words” as such.
    There are examples of both on the previous page of the thread.

    * ducks for cover from flying bullet points *

    Tokyo • Since Apr 2007 • 1944 posts Report

  • tussock, in reply to Simon Lyall,

    Re: Salon article.

    Must say, that is the most ridiculous piece of shit essay on anything I have read in a long time. It’s, well sums itself up quite nicely.

    When we mistake a brainy, introverted boy for an autism spectrum disordered one, we devalue his mental gifts.

    Or … when we notice that autistic people include fucking Einstein and Newton, maybe we notice that exceptional mental gifts are exactly what you bloody well hope for on the spectrum and maybe don’t get otherwise. Even though almost all of us aren’t quite so lucky.


    Hell, the other force of his argument is that people with social difficulties who get extra help with that can improve a little, in an argument where he in effect suggests we not give so many people help like that.

    It’s like finding that people were sick and you gave them medicine and then later they weren’t sick any more so obviously that medicine was all wasted. I am struck by the massive stupidity of it.

    Which I guess makes me too fucking smart to be on the spectrum too. ?!

    Since Nov 2006 • 611 posts Report

  • Russell Brown, in reply to tussock,

    When we mistake a brainy, introverted boy for an autism spectrum disordered one, we devalue his mental gifts.

    Or … when we notice that autistic people include fucking Einstein and Newton, maybe we notice that exceptional mental gifts are exactly what you bloody well hope for on the spectrum and maybe don’t get otherwise. Even though almost all of us aren’t quite so lucky.

    The whole premise of “devaluing” is completely misguided. Whether you see it that way is up to you. A diagnosis is helpful if it helps someone understand the way they relate to the world.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report

  • 81stcolumn,

    Must say, that is the most ridiculous piece of shit essay on anything I have read in a long time. It’s, well sums itself up quite nicely.

    You will no doubt be pleased to learn that Dr. E. Gnaulati. has no expertise in autism or diagnostics, indeed his four credible (loosley termed) publications are in the field of family bonding/separation. But he's a Dr. so he has to be an expert in something right?

    BTW. Tussock - The nice person reading over my shoulder wants to know if you used to sit in front of her in physiology lectures at Otago?

    Nawthshaw • Since Nov 2006 • 790 posts Report

  • tussock, in reply to 81stcolumn,

    I was at Otago ~18 years back, but I don't recall any physiology papers, nor straying into their lectures. More Math, Physics, Cosc, a touch of History and Philosophy. Plus, lectures ultimately failed to be anything like as interesting as I had been promised, so I wasn't at all that many of them. 8]

    @Devaluing. Right. When one points out that Olympic sprinters have some advantageous genetic predispositions in regards their physiological responses to sprint training, it doesn't devalue their actual sprinting, which is amazing.

    Similarly, Aspies do tend to get really good at their special interests and it doesn't devalue how good they are at them. It's more, you know, pointing out the things they'll benefit from some extra help with, typically.

    And like you said, Russel, for me too, having a list of the ways in which everyone else (give or take) is actually different, and that it's a thing with a name, that's very nice to have. Even though there's a thing around the net where that's not accepted at all, which is another story.

    Since Nov 2006 • 611 posts Report

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